Lyco's Back

You can’t keep a good bastich down for long. Here to  rant, rave, and foam at the mouth with outdated updates for your Pop Culture fix. Here to spike your veins for comics, TV, food (WTF), and games along with me is Special Guest Star, the ever lovable Lobo! As sassy Peter Parker's Aunt May would proclaim, he's a real pussy willow! Stan Lee's favorite DC character... Alzheimer's is a serious issue facing our world. For more information please the Main Man at your own peril after the jump.

 

Comics

Lobo’s Paramilitary Christmas Special

 

Guess who made the naughty list?

What could sum up the sentimentality of the holidays more than the Easter Bunny putting a hit out on Santa? I’ll tell you Feetal Gizz loving Batiches what! The Main Man fulfilling the job in a shirtless serrated knife duel with Saint Nick, and then dropping nukes on the naughty kids by sleigh ride. Not for the feint of heart, but if you prefer The Kinks beating up on “Father Christmas” or in the drunk tank with The Pogues’ “Fairytale of NewYork”, then cleanse the palette with a dose of Czarian cynicism.

For all the ultra violence and vulgarity comic gods Giffen, Grant, and often the Biz never play Lobs too seriously. The character’s enduring appeal is his absurdity. It’s smart satire without being smartassy. At a time when you had Wolverine and Punisher hacking up ninjas and mobsters and then given to fits of self brooding agony, war journal entries, and Adamantium declawings, there was a little comic that could featuring a psycho Kiss cosplayer who dared to smoke cigars in the vacuum of space and tenderly cared after his space dolphin pets in between bouts of fragging the good, the bad, and the ridiculous.

52

This series came out just as I was getting back into monthly comics, but I scoffed my rather obtuse nose at anything outside of Gotham City. I wouldn’t venture into those complex waters of the greater DCU until discovering the animated Justice League and Grant Morrison’s JLA. On the plus side, my prejudice saved me $104. My comic book guy only charged me $2 for 2 fiddy books, but anyway I got my hands on the whole run from my older cousin free of charge so score one for ignorance!

The Last Temptation of Lobo

With mega writers like Morrison, Waid, Rucka, and Johns and layouts by legendary Giffen there’s no way this book was going to be boring, but I didn’t know I’d be spending 52 issues with a blind Adam Strange bickering with Starfire (Kory gets an adorable and less exploitive costume change after a run in with Archbishop and reformed pacifist Lobo. As a result of the Main Man’s crassness “Buddy” Animal Man chivalrously loans his shirt to Starfire), Black Adam Jr’s Alligator Man sidekick, an island full of DC’s maddest scientists, and I won’t say anything about the Question and Booster Gold. Even though it’s been almost a decade I’d be hard pressed to say any luster has faded from this manically charged series. What’s the secret of 52? Nothing that’s gold ever fades.

Hellblazer

It’s got the power to get you to start drinking the Guinness. I draw the line at chain smoking.

Anticipating

January 20^th was Martin Luthor King Day, a day to honor the memory of a man who unquestionably had very heroic ideals he was not afraid to express. It does a disservice to only briefly mention his contributions to the fight against racism and the military industrial complex, but his ideals I believe are shared by many around this crazy planet. Well, this isn’t a soapbox, but since I’m kinda obsessed with heroic ideals I bring up King and since February is Black History Month, which just so happens to coincide with the fact that while I was in my home country for Xmas I purchased Icon: A Hero’s Welcome written by the recently deceased Dwayne McDuffie (a man who left a presence still felt today in comics and animation by having a hand in some of the best stories in the superhero genre) and The Black Panther Vol. 1 in the beautifully rendered Marvel Masterworks series. My hope is review both this February.

From the Fridge

Tofu

From on the Telly

How I Learned to Stop Feeling Shafted and Love the Arrow

I wanted to love it from the get go. Give me 1970s liberal beatnik rebel rouser, chili cooking, “There’s a cancer in America” exclaiming, and Fat Cat hating Robin Hood in any media. One doesn’t need to be the world’s greatest detective to spot my bleeding heart, but if I lived in a superhero universe I’d be the Flash, Robin-Tim Drake 90s style, or Green Arrow. Orlando Bloom got nothing on me with a bow in hand. For better or worse, might have something to do with having the Kevin Costner Robin Hood VHS since as far back as I recall. My point being during it’s first season I only saw a handful of eps after the neck snapping pilot. HATE isn’t a strong enough word for how I feel about superheroes that kill, and tripled with the heavy handed and boring CW drama, the main character being unlikable (except when shirtless… c’mon admit it. Heck I even miss having a short buzz cut), and other flat characters (exceptions being Felicity Smoak, Diggle, and Capt Jack AKA Merlyn). It wasn’t until I heard Arrow would be introducing a certain speedster that I had hopes for the sophomore year, and Oh Buddy Holly’s Boy I don’t know what happened behind the scenes, but the show is legitimately off the walls crazy fun time.

Every week I look forward being reduced to a screeching volatile ball of fandom. The midseason Deathstroke reveal, Brother Blood defending the use of crucifixion as a public service, an immediately likable and nerdy Barry Allen, SUPERPOWERS & DOMINO MASK AT LONG LAST, phasing out the use of the (yawn) Vigilante and Hood for Arrow, Roy the once and future man boy sidekick and not to mention Summer Glau keep me coming back for more.

By the by, Arrow’s leading man Stephen Amell used to read whaaaaat in the 90s? He apparently dabbled in the occasionally Lobo comic. Score another for the wolf.

Young Justice

This was a case study in how to smartly balance a large cast of characters without losing story. I’ve recently been rewatching the series after over a year. I was also disappointed when the previously produced series by Greg Weisman, The Spectacular Spider-Man, got the ax from the network. It’s a shame for both Marvel and DC’s characters. These were shows that appealed to a vast audience of not only males, but apparently plenty of girls and women, and why the hell not! Just take a glance at the first season of YJ. The early make up of the team had two strong, bright, and fun female protagonists, Artemis and Miss Martian, who were so relatable and sympathetic to either gender. Later we would see Zatanna (not Sabrina) and Rocket. Jump into the second season opener and you get Batgirl and Wonder Girl holding their own against fraggin intergalactic bounty hunter, Lobo. None of the characters on the team were ever treated as tokens. The creators knew and trusted their audience. Corporate studios executives seem to know how to piss a lot of people off.

Sherlock

Did you miss “him”?

Games

Pokemon Y for You Can’t Put Your Arm Around a Memory

It’s all the Nerd’s fault. I’m in the epicenter of freakin Pokémon, but I have never bought I game since Stadium for the N64. But the Nerd had to recommend Pokemon Origins, and it being a Sunday with nothing else to do I gave into the demon Nostalgia and she/he had her/his way with me. No longer do I have to feel guilty about making these cute little buggers enter cockfights, since now all I have to do is show my affection towards the monsters by petting or feeding them cupcakes. It’s a dark gritty world. I want a Mega Gangar. I always thought he was the ghost of Pikaku, not Clefable. Pika had his tail bitten off probably.

If only there was a Lobo Pokemon. Lobotomy or some such drivel.

I'm holding off on picking up Assassins Creed 3 and 4 until I move house in April. Also hoping for a Ultimate Edition of Arkham Origins later this year, but who knows?